Colony Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CLNY), a global investment management firm, announced that it acquired Digital Bridge Holdings LLC (“Digital Bridge”) for $325 million. The Digital Bridge acquisition follows the May 2019 final closing of Digital Colony Partners, a $4.05 billion fund sponsored by Colony and Digital Bridge. Digital Colony Partners is dedicated to global opportunities in digital infrastructure and is the largest first-time institutional fund of this type.
Following a transition period, Marc Ganzi, a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Bridge, and Managing Partner and an Investment Committee Member at Digital Colony, will become the CEO of Colony, succeeding Thomas J. Barrack, Jr., who will return to the position of Executive Chairman. Ganzi will focus with Barrack, the Colony board, and executive team to continue Colony’s strategic plan of selling non-core assets, reducing G&A, growing investment management, generating liquidity and de-risking, and maintaining REIT status and a dividend.
“Our combined vision will focus on the reality that ever-larger numbers of people will use ever more devices,” Mr. Ganzi said, “and the true explosion of use, driven by interconnected devices, cloud computing, mobility, big data, the internet of things, and especially the 5G roll-out, is still to come. Together as the new Colony, we are excited to bring these opportunities to investors.”
Digital Bridge manages nearly $20 billion of digital infrastructure globally, directly and through Digital Colony Partners, and pro forma for Digital Colony Partners’ pending Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. transaction. Combining this portfolio with Colony’s footprint, the merged firm will manage approximately $60 billion of assets. The Company believes this concentration on digital infrastructure and related, digitally-driven investment management businesses will be a highly compelling strategy to generate substantial and sustainable value for shareholders and is very complementary to recent initiatives in other growth areas such as emerging markets, energy, and listed securities, often with a “new economy” emphasis.
“I have known Marc Ganzi for over two decades and have admiringly watched his progression and success as an entrepreneur, visionary, and as the leading operator and investor in the digital world,” Barrack said. “Since Marc founded Global Tower Partners in 2002, he has been at the forefront of trends in the digital world, capitalizing on the overwhelming integration of mobile connectivity into the global economy and delivering remarkable returns for his investors in the process. He is an exceptional choice to lead our combined companies, investors, and employees as we accelerate, streamline, and cull other Colony business lines through sale or joint ventures and continue to reduce corporate costs,” he said. “We will utilize the transition period to prepare Marc to assume the CEO role as he executes on our digital plan. Together we will continue to grow and expand our digital, credit, and investment management platforms while realigning and redirecting our hospitality and healthcare verticals.”
July 26, 2019
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